Bullish on India, says Apple's Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he is very "bullish" and "optimistic" about India, a market where the company is bringing all of its "energies" to expand footprint.

"We are investing in India... We've already launched an app accelerator centre. That's on top of working with the channel and looking at expanding our go-to-market in general," Cook said during the company's third quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

In response to a question on the company's thoughts about India, Cook said Apple has begun to produce the iPhone SE in India during the quarter and "we're really happy with how that's going". 

"And so we're bringing all of our energies to bear there... And so I'm very, very bullish and very, very optimistic about India," he said.

Cook said he sees a lot of similarities between where the Indian market is now and where China was several years ago.

Apple had in May said that it began initial production of a "small number" of iPhone SE in Bengaluru and would start shipping to domestic customers.

The Karnataka government had in February announced Apple Inc's proposal to commence initial manufacturing operations in Bengaluru. The phones will be manufactured by Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM for Apple.

The 'App Accelerator' in Bengaluru is an initiative that would provide support to Indian developers and enable them transform the design and performance of their apps on its mobile operating system iOS.

Cook was among a select group of CEOs who had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in Washington during the Indian leader’s visit to the US capital for his first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump. 

Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2017 third quarter ended July 1, 2017. The company posted quarterly revenue of USD 45.4 billion as compared to USD 42.4 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Photograph: Stephan Lam/Reuters.